Ballots Are In: Worst CEO in the Biotech Industry Is . . .

by Ed SilvermanDecember 07, 2012

There is nothing like a drop in stock price to upset investors and employees who are counting on a biotech CEO to deliver the goods and make everyone not only rich, but also validate their decision to bet on an ambitious little company. But not every investor or employee is a winner, and that makes a loser out of the CEO. Which biotech ceo is the worst?

The winner this year is Jim Bianco of Cell Therapeutics (CTIC), according to a reader poll conducted by TheStreet biotech columnist, Adam Feuerstein. He notes that Bianco has been a long-standing nominee for the prize and finally broke through the pack by engineering a 77 percent drop in stock price, despite winning European approval for a lymphoma drug.

“In many ways,” he writes, “readers are (dis)honoring Bianco for a lifetime of investor bamboozlement and self-enrichment. The numbers that define his career as CEO are stunning: total losses of more than $1.7 billion, a 99.99999999 percent drop in the value of the stock and total compensation for him and hand-picked team of executive cronies in the tens of millions of dollars.” It makes for an ugly stock chart.

This performance helped Bianco garner 37 percent of the record-breaking 30,239 votes cast for the annual achievement. Last year, by the way, the winner was Mitch Gold, the recently departed CEO at Dendreon (DNDN), which is struggling to make its Provenge prostate cancer vaccine a viable treatment in the face of managerial missteps and rival meds.

The competition this year was fierce, though, as 31 percent of votes cast were for Jon Stonehouse of BioCryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX), while Stephen Simes of BioSante Pharmaceuticals (BPAX) Steven King of Peregrine Pharmaceuticals (PPHM) each attracted 16 percent of the votes.

Ed Silverman, a contributing editor of YCharts, is the founder and editor of Pharmalot. He previously reported on the pharmaceutical industry and other business topics for the Star-Ledger of New Jersey, New York Newsday and Investor’s Business Daily.